2K has announced on a recent blog post that dedicated servers for Evolve will be shutting down as of September 3, 2018. The shuttering of the servers will kill many of the larger features of the game such as Ranked Hunts, leaderboards, as well as the in-game store. This will also mean that Evolve Stage 2, the free-to-play version of the game, will no longer be available for play.

So what does all this mean for Evolve? Well, the game is still playable. The core gameplay of Evolve has always been in multiplayer, and that will still be available. Peer-to-peer connections will still work just fine in Legacy Evolve (the purchased version of the game, not the free-to-play version). All players will also retain any and all DLC content, Hunters, Monsters, and skins.

The biggest change is simply that 2K is removing themselves from the equation. They won’t run dedicated servers for events, they won’t bother with rank or competitive play, and all in-game currency and the in-game store will go offline. As of July 2, all purchases will be removed and disabled. This also means that any Gold and Silver Keys need to be used before this date. Keys were how players purchased Monsters, Hunters, and skins, but after July 2, they will be useless.

For those familiar with the game, it is hardly anything surprising. When trailers were first released for Evolve, everyone was excited for the possibilities. The game looked exciting and action-packed with a variety of skills and tactics for both hunter and predator. However, very quickly people realized that most monsters could evade hunters rather easily, making the game slow and boring. Many videos of the game showed upwards of 10 minutes with the hunters unable to locate the monster at all, simply running in circles indefinitely to locate it.

Evolve was also severely lacking in the story and progression department. The bulk of content for the game was found through downloadable content – such as new monsters and hunters – and the core game became rather repetitive rather quick. Although the game launched to early acclaim, it was only a year after launching that the game had moved to a free-to-play model in July 2016. This was largely due to the mass exodus from the game, leaving the population struggling across all platforms. Only four months after going free-to-play, Evolve ended all game support, essentially leaving the game dead in the water.

The final announcement to shut down rank systems and in-game purchases means that so few purchases or players are still active that it costs more money to keep the digital store open than it is worth. Evolve’s potential as a new multiplayer experience is what brought fans in, but boring gameplay and pay-walled content is what drove them away.